Heaven's Fortune

Brittany "Thespis" Frederick

Summary: The sequel to "Their Law." Standing on the inside, feeling on the outside, they're caught in the middle.

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama

Rating: PG for a little language

Dedication: To Tisha, as always, the better half of me.

Author's Note: This is the third mega-crossover in the Life Serial series, which began with "Coventry" and followed up with "Their Law." However, unlike the previous two parts, this part will be a crossover between 24, The Agency, Freakylinks, and the new Ed O'Neill/Ethan Embry series of Dragnet. Like usual, I don't own any of the stuff that's not mine, and it's all in fun.

          "Did you get your feedback loops?" Professor Berghof was standing in front of my humanities class lecturing.

          "Yeah, the ringing in my ears," I muttered under my breath and both Leticia and Sharon smirked. Granted I had just finished half a liter of Mountain Dew, so I was quite revved up – judging by how much time I had spent mocking one fellow student's assertion that you made coal out of trees – but I was still sure he was a little boring. Of course he'd previously admitted that he puts babies to sleep, so it's not really my fault. He went on to say something else about increased consumption, and I put up my hand to get in my class participation.

          "Won't increased consumption lead to higher demand?" I said.

          Berghof nodded and wrote this in on the feedback loop on the board. I cringed as I thought of what he might do next with only about ten minutes remaining in class. Please, God, not more odd music. I rested my head on my forearms and waited. The bullet missed my head by a few inches and slammed into the white board right near Berghof's hand. I saw him look over at the nice hole while I instinctively ducked under the tables with the rest of the class.

          Of course, I had this rule about not carrying either my SigArm P226 or my Ehrlich 400 on campus grounds. Then again I'd never expected to be shot at in college. Only at the office.

          "Damn," I muttered, and that seemed to say it all.

          I shook my head and turned the car stereo down a notch. I know I have a strange mind, working for the government and such, but I wouldn't call that a daydream. I had borrowed one of my office's cars and was driving across town to Division, where our district director had requested me to handle some personnel changes going on over there. Only having had my permit for about two months (since I'd decided I needed it in the wake of a full-blown assault at an L.A. restaurant), I was having more trouble driving than I did with my actual job as Administrative Assistant Special Agent In Charge for the Counter Terrorist Unit's Los Angeles office.

          My car pulled into a parking space right by the door and I grabbed my attache off the passenger seat, swapped my leather jacket for my black blazer (at CTU we didn't have a dress code but this is Division) and scanned my keycard in the front door, which popped with a sound. I cringed. I've really got to get used to that sound. The security guys waved me through and I stepped onto the main Division ops floor, scanning for George Mason.

          "You're seven minutes early."

          "Were you counting?" I said, somewhat taken aback.

          "No, I just happen to be good at math." Mason approached and shook my hand warmly. He had been a continual presence around my office since I came to work for CTU, and since the events of the attempt on Senator (now President) Palmer's life, not to mention the apprehension of traitor and terrorist Nina Myers, as well as the return of suspected traitor (but really just AWOL employee) Michelle Dessler, we had ended up being thrown together a lot more often and my respect for him had grown. I favored him with a small smile as he said, "It's good to have you down here."

          "I'm glad I could be of service." I followed him toward the other side of the room, toward his office. "So what is that you need? I've got to be back kind of early. Lex and I have a score to settle. He thinks he can beat me at a Trial of Grievance in MechWarrior 2."

          Mason chuckled dryly. "The two of you amaze me at times," he said, holding the door open for me and then closing it behind himself as I remained standing in front of his desk. "I need you to review staff and staff candidates. You've got a good third eye and we need that. Especially given what happened to Jack." He was referring to my boss, Jack Bauer, who had been duped by Nina Myers like the rest of us. I nodded, omitting how good it had felt for me to put a bullet into her arm in England. "I know what you mean," I said. "Give me the master list and a place to work and I'll get started."

          He handed me a three or four page packet. "Just go ahead and use right here. You've already got my authorization code," he said, "take your time and keep me up to date. If you need to see anybody, just let me know." On that note, George left me be. He knew I could handle myself, and besides he had work to do, more than usual as CTU was still overhauling itself. I circled around and dropped into his desk chair, staring at the two dozen or so names on the first page of the packet. This might take a while.

          Twenty minutes or so later the phone on his desk bleeped. With nothing to lose I picked up the receiver and punched the extension. "Division, this is Agent Frederick."

          "Brittany, it's me."

          "Lex, what's going on? You really don't think you'll win, do you?"

          My partner and CTU tech officer, Agent Lex Richards, just chuckled. "That's another story, but that's not why I called. I just took a call for you from the LAPD. Homicide division."

          "What?" I blurted, more than a little surprised. "Why am I being called by homicide? Explain it slowly."

          "A Detective Smith just called. They had a homicide uptown this morning, and apparently the victim had your business card in his pocket. They want to talk to you as soon as possible. I told them you'd meet them in an hour downtown."

          I exhaled, knowing I'd have to explain this to Mason, Jack, God and everybody, not to mention I didn't have the slightest clue what the heck was going on. At least, thus far, it didn't appear to have anything to do with Code Fives, which were the particular vampire prey of my recent boyfriend, Michael Colefield. That's right, an average day on my job involves terrorists, suspected terrorists, homicides, vampires, and maybe, just maybe, blowing things up.

          "Right, okay. I'm on it."

          "I'll cover for you."

          "Get Paula."

          "Why Paula?"

          "Because you're coming with me."

          "Is that really…"

          "Lex."

          "… Right, I'll finish up and meet you in the Division parking lot in twenty minutes." He paused, and there was silence on the line; I could hear him thinking. "Brittany, did you ever realize that more and more we seem to be around when everything goes down?"

          I nodded. "Yeah, I did notice that. Creepy, isn't it?"

          "Uh, yeah. Majorly. See you soon."

          "Right. Bye." We hung up on each other simultaneously, and I exited Mason's office promptly, leaving the paperwork on his desk for obvious reasons. He spotted me approaching and could read the look on my face (I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve, as the saying goes), and quipped, "I'm guessing you're not done yet."

          "No, I'm just potentially involved in a homicide." At his look, I elaborated. "Lex called. Uptown somebody got killed with my business card and now homicide division would like a word with me in an hour. I'm leaving in twenty minutes, and I know absolutely nothing, so as you can imagine, I feel pretty good about myself."

          My boss's boss smirked. "I mean this nicely but I wouldn't ever want to be you."

          "None taken. I'm kind of having that feeling myself." I checked my watch and sighed. "Listen, anyway, I've got to make some calls before I go, call Jack and such, but I promise I'll come back and get that master list done for you as soon as I can. Provided I'm not, I don't know, arrested or something."

          "It's all right."

          "Okay, then I'll see you later." I started walking to the door, then stopped when Mason called me back. I arched an eyebrow, waiting to see what he wanted. "Yeah?" I said, trying to sound nonchalant and failing miserably.

          "Just for paranoia's sake," he said, "I'd take your gun."